The following two articles by The Jakarta Post journalist Ati Nurbaiti
deal with reconciliation in East Timor, written after an invitation to
Dili to attend the first congress of the Association of Journalists of
Timor Lorosae in January.

JAKARTA (JP): In the face of accumulated, unsettled crimes, a
commission of truth and reconciliation has been set up in East Timor.
Related questions are similar to that regarding Indonesia's similar
commission: How is reconciliation to be achieved without accountability on
the part of those guilty?

Those who issued orders to kill in Liquica in 1999 reportedly promised
a sum of Rp 75,000 "per head". Reconciliation in East Timor is
not simply closing the divide of "us" versus "them".
One Liquica man is still distraught after killing his own wife, an
activist helping victims said.

Cases under investigation and those to be tried are limited to those
occurring since 1999. Meanwhile, pro-Indonesian Timorese have said that
the victims on their side, reaching tens of thousands in the 1970s, have
never been mentioned given "the bias of the West" toward the
independence movement.

Aitarak militia leader Eurico Guterres, on trial for illegal possession
of weapons in Jakarta, has said that reconciliation in East Timor would
only mean pro-Indonesian Timorese "bowing down to (East Timorese
leader) Xanana".

Picking priorities would mean glossing over accounts of many past
massacres, tortures and rapes reported from various regions, the
mysterious deaths of babies at the Dili hospital -- suspected to be
related to their parents' association to the independence movement -- and
many other unresolved atrocities.

The killing of babies, pregnant women and their fetus in attacks on
villagers is referred to by an Indonesian officer, as quoted by
sociologist George J. Aditjondro from an Indonesian magazine, as the
killing of "little and big snakes", seemingly to avoid a
potential new generation of revengeful enemies.

Defining reconciliation will take some time as indicated by differences
among Timor figures, notably among leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana"
Gusmao and Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo.

While Belo advocates that justice be done, Xanana has said legal
proceedings against suspected criminals could deter thousands of Timorese
on the border from returning home.

Xanana has said that customary ways of "reconciliation" are
preferred -- meaning encouraging militiamen to speak of their wrongdoings
before the bereaved; then have them do community work as a means of
redemption.

Community ways of reconciling victims and crime perpetrators have
already begun in East Timor's Oecussi enclave in East Nusa Tenggara.
"The man who killed his own uncle came to our family to
confess," said Oecussi native Francis Suni.

A number of other militiamen have traveled to Oecussi to convey similar
stories, pointing to places where the bodies were dumped, he said. Then
they quietly returned to "self-exile" despite offers to return.
"We told the man, who has a degree in agriculture, that his skills
were needed to rebuild Oecussi," Francis said.

He explained such revelations are made possible by customs regarding
crimes in the community, which dictate that perpetrators are accepted back
once they confess.

"I pity militiamen," said Francis, who was held at gunpoint
by his adopted brother. "One said he and several others were forced
by soldiers to consume pills -- some were brown and white -- they couldn't
have acted on their own."

If pro-Indonesia militiamen went to Oecussi, to check on their land and
remaining cattle, "no one would harm them, we would just let them
be," Francis said.

This seems to be a rare case, with villagers elsewhere saying members
of a militia would be accepted back into the community but with one
condition -- "we'd hand them over first to the (UN) civil
police".

In Balibo near the Indonesian border, townspeople say they would not
harm militiamen "unless they resist" being taken to the civil
police.

In Liquica, site of massacres in April and September 1999, the local
priest says the thirst for revenge is ebbing.

"People no longer rush to see returning refugees" to check if
any militia is among them, Father Yosef Daslan said.

Belo has been quoted as saying that reconciliation is not possible if
justice is not served, citing the scores of women who have watched their
husbands killed and those who cannot rest until the bodies are found.

Some widows have said they are willing to testify -- but when it comes
to courts in Jakarta, some have expressed distrust.

"They know what will happen, the guilty will get away," says
Laura Abarrantes of Fokupers women's organization.

More victims speaking up is crucial for the courts trying serious
crimes -- including murder, rape, forced removal, torture and
disappearance.

Judges say expectations for justice face the obstacle of many women
still to speak up despite many testimonies already, as confided to the
church, researchers or activists.

The lack of women investigators into crimes against humanity is one
problem, says UN expert for crimes against humanity, James Dunn.

The most urgent need, says Dunn, "is Indonesian officers breaking
ranks" with those who must protect themselves and their careers by
keeping silent, even though some may have not agreed to orders and actions
affecting civilians.

In the discourse of reconciliation, there are women who are even more
silent.

With a smile, Theresa in Dili says that she and husband are going their
separate ways, indefinitely.

"He cannot come home, let him stay there," says Theresa of
her husband, a native of Kupang now residing in Atambua, a border town.

"He's a member of Aitarak," the Dili-based militia, she said.

The Jakarta Post February 14, 2001

Opinion

A way of healing people in E. Timor

DILI, East Timor (JP): How do you cheer up whole villages hit twice by
armed gangs killing and burning everything in sight?

Months after the September 1999 violence that drove Timorese into
hiding following their vote for independence, the priest returned from his
hometown in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, to find members of his
congregation sitting around glumly on the streets.

They needed cheering up and the contests worked so well that an
international organization is donating bicycles for races in the next
contest.

"We decided to hold it every year," Daslan told The Jakarta
Post. He was speaking in his office which is also the priest's official
residence -- and now also a monument to the massacre of April 6, 1999.

The priest, who replaces Father Raphael dos Santos who survived the
attack, displays the new tiles, window panes and a dark spot of dry blood
missed in the cover-up of crucial evidence only three days after the April
killings.

The church, he says, now must help people recover their courage to
speak up. But it turned out that the first urgent need was "to be
merry".

The assault by pro-Indonesia militias is now among cases investigated
by Indonesia's Attorney General's Office. The attack was part of the
tension ahead of the Aug. 30 referendum and in September, the violence was
repeated. Once again, Liquica residents fled to the hills.

Figures of both the April and September attacks for Liquica alone have
not yet been formally released -- but there are some 100 widows and scores
of orphans in Liquica and nearby Maubara -- among them witnesses of both
tragedies.

The mourning here is for both the deaths and the absence of knowing
where bodies lie for many of them. Adding to the pain, as in all areas
ravaged by violence in East Timor, is that close relatives are among the
attackers.

Witnesses of family losses are easily found -- the young journalists
who witnessed parents being shot dead when attempting to escape in the
late 1970s; a witness of a massacre in Los Palos in the 1980s.

"I was about 10, I was sitting on a boulder at a distance," a
native of Los Palos said. "I saw a line of men in fatigues giving
orders to the second line in front of them, or killing those who
hesitated."

The second layer was ordered to kill some 30 men and women, the source
recalls, and he later learned that similar killings occurred in three
other villages.

Similar to women in Liquica, in Maliana's Balibo area, Inazu Colo
cannot yet discuss reconciliation. She would like to know where her
husband is buried -- as she is sure that he is dead along with seven other
men abducted in September 1999.

Inazu works in the very house where she and other women took food to
their men every day, until one day she was told by a neighbor: "Go
home, he is no longer here."

The house, which initially belonged to a militia leader, is now the
local headquarters of Xanana's organization, the National Council for East
Timor Resistance (CNRT). It is right across from the remains of a building
occupied by five journalists from Australia, Britain and New Zealand
before they were killed in 1975.

The building, an abandoned shop, has been continuously used by
residents as a shrine to pray for all those whose remains are found in the
area.

Similar to Father Daslan, a women's group, Fokupers, has also tried to
help victims recover. Far from the reconciliation plans to accept back
"those who robbed my husband", in the words of one Liquica
widow, and far from the courts, the healing rituals aim for the first step
in healing victims -- finding their voice.

On the surface, Laura says, Timorese "have grown used to gang
fights; we've become hardened". But once the women began to talk,
"they cried and cried".

One healing ritual took place in the Kararas village in Viqueque
district, the site of a 1983 massacre of some 1,000 villagers, which
witnesses say was conducted by the Indonesian military. Laura said the
women talked of their children fathered by soldiers who raped them.

Abortion was out of the question in the Catholic community, and the
illegitimate youngsters had grown up without school, rejected for
inexplicit, yet clear, reasons.

There are reportedly scores of such children, who pose yet another
challenge for those working in healing and reconciliation. (anr)

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